Taxation is a key activity of any state and a constant point of political struggle. The structure of taxation is continuously changing and evolving, and its size has grown dramatically during the last two hundred years. Many of the cross-national patterns we observe today are the result of centuries old conflicts and challenges, hence we need to take history into account if we want to understand c

The past few decades have seen an increasing demand for environmental information on which to make more informed decisions, strengthened by several international calls for improving available environmental information. In a democratic South Africa, the involvement of people in policy and decision-making processes has led to an even greater need for accessible information. In response to this deman

With more advanced manufacturing technologies, small and medium sized enterprises can compete with low-wage labor by providing customized and high quality products. For small production series, robotic systems can provide a cost-effective solution. However, for robots to be able to perform on par with human workers in manufacturing industries, they must become flexible and autonomous in their taskWith more advanced manufacturing technologies, small and medium sized enterprises can compete with low-wage labor by providing customized and high quality products. For small production series, robotic systems can provide a cost-effective solution. However, for robots to be able to perform on par with human workers in manufacturing industries, they must become flexible and autonomous in their task

Objective: Understanding the cartilage surface structure, lost in arthritic disease, is essential for developing strategies to effectively restore it. Given that adherence of the lubricating protein, lubricin, to the cartilage surface is critical for boundary lubrication, an interaction with cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) was investigated. COMP, an abundant cartilage protein, is known

The relative roles of different receptor systems in compensating for vestibular loss were studied in 18 children (12 to 16 years of age) with congenital or early acquired bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) and impaired hearing, and compared to that in 33 normal children (9 to 16 years of age). Postural stability was studied with posturography evaluating the velocity of anterior-posterior body sway. W

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a highly malignant disease with a very short median survival time. Few studies have addressed the underlying somatic mutations, and the genomic landscape of ATC thus remains largely unknown. In the present study, we have ascertained copy number aberrations, gene fusions, gene expression patterns, and mutations in early-passage cells from ten newly established ATC

Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) at a constant stimulus velocity of 90 degrees/s was studied in 50 healthy subjects and three different groups of patients: 10 with vestibular neuritis (VN), 17 with unilateral infratentorial lesion (UI) and 13 patients with bilateral infratentorial lesion (BI). Among healthy subjects, OKN decreased with age in those over 42 and 44 years for maximum and mean velocity, re

In the context of Internet of Things (IoT), the research of this dissertation is concerned with the development of applications for end-user devices, i.e. devices through which the end-user directly interacts with systems. The complexity of such applications is partly due to network intricacies, and partly because GUI (Graphical User Interface) development is generally complicated and time consumi

Objectives: The purpose was to study long-term outcome after thrombolysis for acute arterial lower limb ischaemia, and to evaluate the results depending on the underlying aetiology of arterial occlusion. Methods: This was a retrospective study of patients entered into a prospective database. Patients were identified in prospective databases from two vascular centres, including a large number of va